boring, boring Guoan!
Guoan kicked off it’s CFA Cup experience at Gongti Wednesday night in what was a boring match from start to finish with few interesting points to discuss, nevertheless, I press on.
I was surprised by Pacheco’s approach in this one, I was expecting more of a complete overhaul of the lineup, but he only made a few minor changes heading into this match, resting Xu Yunlong and giving Yang Yun a run out and giving Yan Xiangchuang a look. Otherwise, this was pretty much the same side that’s won 3 straight.
Credit to Yang Zhi for extending his streak to 362 minutes without a goal, but really the credit has to go to Shanghai East Asia. Their strategy was simple, keep 11 players behind the ball at all times, work the counter attack if you have a chance, but otherwise hope and pray Guoan doesn’t score and the match goes to penalties.
They almost got their wish. Guoan produced chance after chane, but more often than not, they were stifled by 3 defenders on one player or, more than once, by the linesman’s offsides flag. The goal that made the difference finally came off a Martinez shot that Zhang Xizhe knocked past the keeper, 1-0 to Guoan, quickly ending any hope Shanghai had.
This was a bad performance from Guoan, but let’s chalk it up to playing down to the opposition. Massive winds also played a factor in the match, any cross played in the air was completely unpredictable. On top of that, of course, is the condition of the Gongti pitch, which Pacheco complained about after the match.
Man of the Match
- The first non-player (and woman) I’ve given Man of the Match to. She gets it for going crazy and getting the crowd excited.
News & Notes
- The woman above appeared to be the lone Shanghai fan who made the trip to Beijing, she was sitting in the lower 2nd stand and seemed to take offense at some Guoan fans chants, so she went off. Rumors abound that she may be related to a East Asia player.
- Dalian Shide was the only Chinese Super League side to go out to a China League team in this round, with Yanbian pulling off an impressive victory. At the same time, Nanchang surprisingly crushed China League leading Dalian Aerbin 2-0.
- Chinese Super League leading Guangzhou Evergrande crashed out to the “Northwestern wolves” on penalties yesterday, it took 11 shooters, but Shaanxi finally won it.
- The 3rd round will take place May 25th, and then the quarterfinals will be in November.
A small correction: It was Yu Yang, the former China U19 captain, on the pitch.
As for CFA cup, half year between two rounds…what a…whatever-that -is…arrangement.
The man-of-the-match award has me sniggering away behind my monitor this afternoon. Hilarious stuff bcheng.
@Eric B (where’s your rakim?!)很丢脸！ Actually, I should have known this, Yang Yun is injured, I saw him doing some separate training the other day when running at Gongti…
@WEF, not everything I write is straight up, I kind of have something resembling a sense of humor too…
lol, next time underline the sentence and mark ‘humor’ so he can know, lol
Yeah and here was me thinking you were my straight man during the pub talks. Keep up the banter!